*1946 Sandpoint ID, USA   -   †1991 Amsterdam

Klyde Warren Marley, born Idaho May 19th, 1946, came to Europe as a young man in the sixties-seventies to look for inspiration,
culture, adventure, ...and to write music on this Steinway Grand.
He grew up in Sandpoint with his three brothers, mother Opal and father Klyde.
Two mean influences in his life: his mother who played the piano herself, passed on a musical dimension, his dad who was a  
Baptist minister emphasized a spiritual dimension.
Warren developed a daily ritual to study and meditate the Bible.
As teenager he moved to Esterville, US. to stay with ant Ardis Carey.
Warren was fascinated by music, learned to play the piano, studied classical music,
accompanied the school choir, played in boy-bands and dreamed of a musical carrier.
To sing and to write music was his first and last love, an instinct and intellectual drive.
Besides this he had a great interest in literature and art.
He loved to read Agatha Christie, Ronald Dahl, Ruth Rendel and the classic Russian writers
.
Somehow he met some important people in the music business. People That helped him to start his carrier.

They facilitated and developed his profound love and talent for music.
Some of these names: Don Costa, Phil Ramone, Gerry and Sid Bernstein.
He was stationed and worked in Los Angeles, New York and a few years in
Honolulu Hawaii, in The Peninsula hotel in in Hong Kong and in Amsterdam.   

From the States he traveled to London, Berlin, Poland, Paris, Amsterdam.....
In about 1976 he decided to settle in Amsterdam.
He recorded songs and worked as entertainer in different places like Okura and the Hilton.
In 1989 he became victim of an incurable illness and died in 1991.
His last year was a one of serious health problems and hardship.

Warren a person with humour, with great compassion for people in need and pain,
great empathy for children and elderly people.

Knowing his life would come to an end within a short time, he wanted to leave with a special gift, to leave with beauty.
He wrote twelve songs for Christmas. An album he taped himself - voice and piano - and named it
'For every Christmas'. It was his most emotional act ever.
Giving all his talent and believe in this project, in a period were physical strength was under attack.

These songs are his legacy. Songs with a divine theme, to fulfill a human eagerness, joy and consolation.
For Warren not the religious groups, communities nor institutions were of importance.
Just reading the bible daily was his inspiration. Some songs contain only biblical texts.
It was a serene awareness, an inner believe that the visible-invisible world are an integrated unity.

A last wish and voyage.
In the last month of his life he received help to accomplish a last wish: traveling a last time to the USA,
to visit his hometown, his mother and family in Idaho.
It was of great consolation to say farewell to family, place of birth, youth and friends.
Painful and joyful.
Three days later back in Amsterdam he died due to an acute blood infection.

Warren rests in Zorgvlied - the old Amsterdam cemetery. He is buried with his bible in his hand.
A wish to rest with the Word of God.                 

        A project for the future.

The Allred Music - Warren Marley Foundation purpose (Allred is the name of his beloved aunt).
Allred Music - the Warren Marley foundation wishes to promote Warren's music and the 'For every Christmas' songs.
Except for the exploitation cost (artist royalties, producers fee, ect.) profits made with his music should serve a human aim.

The aim want to support simple and clear medical and social projects by non-governmental organisations.
In particular hiv-related assistance, gay rigths and -emanicipatoire projects.